Third Down, Five to Go

It’s third down, five to go. Do you
a) Try and run the ball. It’s only five yards and you might be able to get the ball through.
b) Attempt a pass. Again, since it’s only five yards you just need a short pass.
c) Give up and punt.
d) Change the unit of measurement to semesters and transition into talking about college.

Answer: d. I have survived yet another semester at Cornell. Not that I had much say in it, but here’s what I thought of the classes I was told to take this semester.

Honors Physical Chemistry I: Mainly, I enjoyed complaining about Mathematica and the Schrodinger equation. Other than that, it was interesting to approach chemistry from a more mathematical standpoint. We modeled chemical bonds as harmonic oscillators, discovered that orbitals are a lie, and complained some more about Mathematica.

Mass and Energy Balances: I didn’t want to dislike this class. I don’t think anybody goes into a class wanting to hate it. Though I didn't end up hating this class, I didn't love it either. I’d seen a lot of the material in Intro to ChemE last fall, but I didn’t mind that. Without going into too much detail, the class wasn’t structured in a way that let people learn and figure things out for themselves. Other than that, the material was interesting, and I thought the homework problems and projects were good. [Minus the due dates for the projects. The first project was due the morning after a p-chem prelim. The second project was scheduled such that my group ended up working on it for seven hours straight on a weekend. The final project was due during study break. By the time we thought to question whether that was even allowed, we’d been working for five or six hours and were “almost done.”]

Linear Algebra for Engineers: Out of the three math courses I’ve taken, I think this was the easiest. Part of it was due to the professor; he allowed prelim corrections and his prelims were very straightforward. It turns out that linear algebra and p-chem share a fair amount in common, to the dismay of the chemical engineers. Once was enough.

History of Science in Europe I: As it turns out, my liberal studies class required me to both read a lot and write essays. But I stuck with it because it fit in my schedule and I was actually interested in the topic. The class provided background information for how modern science (all the things I use in my other classes) developed. More work than I expected/was looking for in a liberal studies class, but I consider it worth it in the end. Though I don’t think I’ll be taking History of Science in Europe II. My excuse: it doesn't fit in my schedule.

Day Hiking: After nine years of mostly suffering through public school physical education, I can say that PE in college is much, much better. I took hiking just to get off campus once a week and tramp through mud, get bitten by bugs, and scratched by branches.

The Blogger’s Paradox

When you have something to write about, you have no time to write about it.

When you have time, you have nothing to write about.

The No-Longer-Hypothetical List of Exciting Things That Have Happened to me at Cornell, Fall 2013 edition

In case I haven’t said it enough, this fall was really, really busy. Between AAIV, Cornell Productions, pep band, rock climbing, and, oh yeah, actual classes, I didn't have a whole lot of time to sit around staring at the walls. With all the eventfulness came a fair amount of excitement, which leads us into this semester’s list of Exciting Things That Have Happened to me at Cornell.

1. Madison Square Garden: My first time at Madison Square Garden, I not only got to see Cornell’s men’s hockey team play, but I also got to play with the pep band at the game. It was quite an adventure.

2. Unsupervised baking: As the semester wound down, some friends and I managed to get together and do some baking. So far we've made lemon bars and mini apple pies, and I made (not very cheesy) cheese crackers all by myself. The main thing about cooking in college is that you want recipes with as few ingredients as possible. Everything also has to be done by hand with basic tools. Pastry cutter? Don’t have one. I don’t even have salt, but flour has taste by itself, right?

Mini apple pies

3. Mariinsky Orchestra: This was part of the Cornell Concert Series at Bailey Hall, and I was working backstage for Cornell Productions during the concert. They played Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, Isle of the Dead by Rachmaninoff, and Shostakovich’s Symphony no. 5, and they were very good. Besides putting away the hundreds of chairs and stands, we also helped to load their truck. It takes a lot of wardrobes to clothe an entire orchestra.

4. Small group: Here’s how the story goes. At the end of summer one of my friends emailed me and asked if I’d be interested in being a core member for her small group. To be a core member I “just had to show up.” I said okay, because showing up isn't too hard once you commit your time to it. Sometime in the middle of the semester, my friend asks me if I’d like to prep for small group with her. I said, yeah, sure, because it would be good to see how preparation for small group goes. As we’re going through the passage, she asks me if I’d like to lead that week. Well, then. So much for just showing up. [I did end up saying yes and leading. And it was a good experience.]

5. First ChemE presentation: At the end of Mass and Energy Balances, we didn't have a written final, but we had to make a group presentation about our efforts to reduce the flow rate of carbon into the atmosphere. I was working with my Intro to ChemE group from last year and my current roommate. Apparently it isn't enough for chemical engineers to take all the same classes. We also do homework together, have meals together, and live together. It’s great.

Quite frankly, I can’t narrow down an entire semester to a few events and call them the most exciting things that happened to me in the past four months. I went hiking and saw waterfalls, helped to plan several AAIV events, got to use the very nice sound board the Bear’s Den has while working for Cornell Productions, spent hours yelling at Cornell sports teams, spent more hours hanging upside down at the bouldering wall, stayed up past midnight way too many times arguing with Mathematica or writing essays the morning they were due, trekked a couple hundred miles across campus, complained about anything and everything, and generally had a phenomenal time. And I get to do it all over again next semester.

Monsters University

In one of the few instances where I watched a movie in the same year it was released, I recently saw Monsters University. Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought it was funny, and although the second half of the storyline wasn't the most creative, it was still good.

If you haven’t seen the movie yet, I will be talking in some detail about the plot and ending later on, but for now, the premise of the movie is that Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan (Sulley) are monsters aspiring to become scarers who meet at Monsters University. The scarers go into the human world to make children scream, which powers the monster world. Of course, Mike and Sulley get into trouble at college, and have to learn to get along with each other if they want to have a shot at becoming scarers.

NOTE: The next two paragraphs contain information about specific events in the movie, so skip to the last paragraph if you don’t want any spoilers. If you do dare to read on, I’ll be writing as though you've already seen the movie.

Starting from the beginning, I liked the story explaining how Mike got to Monsters University. Orientation was amusingly accurate, including the seven hundred different groups trying to get you to join. I’m not going to comment on any of the frat parties, but then again, I’ve never actually been to one. As for the Scare Games, that’s where the storyline started becoming more standard, though it was still enjoyable to see how Mike and Sulley and their team got through the challenges.

The part of the ending that I thought could have been written better was what happened after Sulley confesses to the dean that he cheated in the Scare Games. She tells him that it’s cause for expulsion, and Mike and Sulley do end up having to leave Monsters University, but they immediately go and work in the mailroom at Monsters, Inc. They then manage to work their way up to the scare floor, which was their goal in the first place. While it’s good that they had to work to get what they wanted (imagine that), the short timeframe in the movie made it feel like there wasn’t really a consequence for Sulley cheating. Because cheating is wrong. Don’t try that at home, kids. [Though the scene in the human world right before they get expelled was well done, both animation and script-wise.]

To conclude, I would recommend the movie. I didn't even fall asleep while watching it, unlike during both Iron Man and Iron Man 2, the third Transformers, and Thor, among others. [Just so you know I don’t think all superhero/action movies are terrible, I did not fall asleep during The Avengers, which I thought was pretty good.] I once read or heard that Pixar movies grew up with their original audience, the students currently in college (people around my age). They still make what can be called kids’ movies, but they started out with Toy Story, which was about kids’ toys, when we were young. Around 2005, they released movies about growing up, like Finding Nemo and The Incredibles. And now Andy, from Toy Story, has gone off to college in Toy Story 3 and Mike and Sulley have had their own college experience in Monsters University. Pixar, if you’re reading this, if you could release a movie about getting a job next, that would be great.

I’m Dreaming of a White . . .

Christmas. Yes, I’m filling in the song title with the right holiday this time. I also realized that I used the wrong verb last time. . . . The song is “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” not “It’s Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas.” Or Thanksgiving, in my case. Anyway, my mistake.

When I last left Cornell, most of the snow had actually melted due to an entire day of temperatures in the 40s. Before that, however, campus really was white. At least before the snow was trampled and turned brown and grey.

Here are some scenes from around campus:

The sundial on the engineering quad

Ezra Cornell

The slope

Another fact worth noting is that I wrote my first post one day and one year ago. Other than that, the only thing I have left to say is Merry Christmas.